


Echo Geeks

by reisolate



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Computer Programming, Computers, Geeky, Gen, Los Angeles, Marco's a genius, Marco's an entrepreneur too, Not Canon Compliant, Technology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28656306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reisolate/pseuds/reisolate
Summary: A highly geeky SVTFOE story, following the adventures of Star Butterfly as she tags along with Marco, Alfonzo, Ferguson, and Janna, a group of highly ambitious friends who all love technology. It also takes a look at technology that's both real and fictional, and talks about how big of a role tech has in our lives today.
Relationships: Alfonzo Dolittle & Ferguson O'durguson, Marco Diaz & Janna Ordonia, Star Butterfly & Marco Diaz
Kudos: 2





	1. starComestoEarth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter, where we introduce Star and Marco. Star learns about the magic of computers, and Marco is also much more mature than he is in the show.

Echo Creek. A small city in the outskirts of the edges of the suburbs of Los Angeles, it doesn't have much to show for itself at first. A small, tight-knit community? Sure. But you can find that anywhere else. A weird obsession with possums? That might have set the town apart in the past, but not in the world of today. However, this town was about to become the link between two dimensions, and in more ways than one, and it all started when a princess from another dimension happened to find herself in a group of nerds.

How did she end up with them? Long story short, it involved her setting her whole kingdom on fire, and her needing to train in magic on Earth, where it's safer. Of course, she has to enrol in school like an Earth kid, and this is where our story begins, with her in the principal's office with her parents.

"So you say you're from another dimension."

Principal Skeeves looked at Star with a blank expression. She was fiddling with a light switch. She said to her mom, "and you told me there was no magic on Earth."

Queen Butterfly sighed, as she explained, "For the fifth time, Star, that's not magic. It's electricity."

Star said in response, "Nope, it's totally magic."

With an expression of scrutiny, Skeeves said, "Yeah, this isn't gonna work."

The queen and king of Mewni then opened up a chest filled with gold and jewels. The principal's eyes light up as he says, "She is gonna love it here!"

River chimed in and declared, "She's going to need a guide."

Skeeves' expression went back to a blank one and he said, "if the girl doesn't even know what electricity is, I know just who to pick." He picks up his PA microphone and shouts, "Marco Diaz to the principal's office, Marco Diaz to the principal's office!"

Marco is sitting in Mrs. Skullnick's math class. He's busy taking notes on his notebook computer, a 2015 MacBook Pro. Apple, because he likes the hardware as well as OS X. He got it a few months ago, but it still looks as clean as the day he bought it. Good thing he keeps his stuff clean and away from any sort of danger. Hearing the announcement calling his name, he wonders what it could be. Whatever it was, he hoped it was something that would make him look cool, and not the safe kid computer geek everyone saw him to be. He saved his notes and closed the lid, because you always save your work. He then grabbed his bag and put all his stuff in there. He left without a word, because that's how cool he liked to be.

He didn't know what to expect when he got to the principal's office, but he certainly didn't expect this blond girl who was biting the water fountain. He guessed it was another exchange student. That was nice. He loved having exchange students over, as did his parents. Normally, Skeeves would explain more, but he ran off to get ice cream. Weird.

Star looked at Marco and said, "Hi, safe kid!" She continued biting at the fountain.

Marco replied. "I have a name, and it's Marco Diaz. Don't call me a safe kid, you haven't even gotten to know me. Also, why are you biting the water fountain?" Marco pressed the button, and Star was wowed by how the water came out of the nozzle.

"Hi Marco, I'm Star Butterfly, a magical princess from another dimension!" She waved her magic wand around, which Marco thought was just for show up until that point. He didn't really question it. He had his laptop, which always stayed with him, except for karate practice. If she had a toy wand, it was normal for him.

What was not normal for him, however, was what happened next. He saw a colourful rainbow come from the wand and thought, Wow, that's some pretty awesome tech. She must be rich, or a fellow geek, or both. Then the rainbow combusted. That did not look normal. Wait, what did she just say about magic? Marco knew what he had to do. He ran to the fire extinguisher in the wall, and broke the glass. He got it out and sounded the alarm. He then proceeded to douse the flames as they spread through the walls.

Once the fire was out, Marco calmed down. Any ordinary person would have been freaked out at this point, but as someone who was used to computers breaking down, he understood that she didn't have a full grasp over that wand yet.

He finally spoke. "Okay, Star, I am not sure what exactly magic is, but what I do know is that you should probably put that wand away for now. You nearly burned down the school just now as it is."

Star frowned as she put her wand in a pocket in her skirt. She grabbed her bags. Then she said, "wait, what do you mean you don't know what magic is? How else do you explain those lights?"

"It's called electricity, Star. You know, the stuff you have in lightning, us people on Earth use it to power tons of stuff, like lights, that water fountain you were biting on earlier, and computers."

Star blinked. "What's a computer?"

"As much as I'd like to show you now, we should probably get your stuff home. I'll get to introduce you to my parents as well. What do you say?"

Star nodded, and cheerily went along behind Marco.

The walk home was really nice, with Star explaining her home dimension of Mewni, and how as the princess, she gets a magic wand at 14. However, she ended up setting her entire kingdom on fire by accident, which is why she's here.

Marco said to Star, "Wow, you're really irresponsible. Don't worry, while you live with me, you'll learn a thing or two about responsibility, and a bunch of things about Earth technology as well." Marco stopped to grab his keys, and unlocked the door. "Well, we're home! Welcome to Casa Diaz! Ladies first!"

Star replied with a smirk, "Oh, Marco, such a gentleman."

Marco said in response, "It's the right thing to do."

Marco's parents leaped in excitement when they saw Star. They instantly sat her on the couch, gave her some nachos since they had nothing prepared on such short notice, and sent Marco and Star off upstairs.

As the two were walking up, Marco's mom yelled, "A bit of a warning about Marco: he's great, but he can be a huge bore sometimes!"

Marco frowned and said, "Do you have to say that every time, Mom?"

"Of course I do, Marco! You end up boring the exchange students when you talk about your computers!"

"Not this time, Mom, not this time."

Marco's dad says in response, "That's what he says every time. Every time." Marco's parents burst out in laughter. Marco also has a bit of a smile on his face. Star isn't sure what to feel. She doesn't even know what computers are yet.

Star then speaks up. "Marco, you still haven't—"

Marco interrupts. " We need to get your room set up first, Star, then we'll talk." He then looks down to the living room. "See mom, see?"

His mom pretends she didn't listen. Marco shrugs it off, and the two friends go to Star's room.

After a bit of sprucing up Star's room with magic, and Marco quickly denying she give his room a makeover, because he didn't want all his stuff to be destroyed, both of them are sitting in Marco's room.

Marco is acting like a showman, and says, "Star, I know I've kept you waiting for long, but the wait is finally over. This is a computer." He walks over to his desk, gesturing to his iMac, and pulls out a chair for Star to sit on. "Take a seat."

Star silently obeys. She looks at the computer. It looked like something she saw in the Underworld once. Maybe it's the same thing, she thought. She had never bothered to ask Tom. She looks at the desk, where she sees a thing with a bunch of buttons with letters on them, as well as a smaller rounded rectangle thing next to it.

"Okay, Star, are your hands clean?"

She nods. Marco inspects her hands to be sure. Once that's done, he resumes. "Okay Star, just put your right hand on the back corner of the computer and feel around for a dimple. When you find it, tell me."

Star feels around, then finds a dip in the back. "No, Star, that's not it, that's a headphone jack. A bit more to the right. Yes, that's it. Now press it."

Star pressed the button. For a second, she stared at the computer, not knowing what to expect. Then the boot chime played, which startled Star. She held up her wand, but Marco stopped her.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no wands near the computer. I don't want you breaking it."

Star forms a grimace on her face, and apologizes. "Sorry, I'll put the wand down."

By then, the computer is on the login screen.

Marco continues his instruction. "Okay, now, click on the icon that has 'Guest User' written below it." Star complies, and after a second of loading, it showed the OS X El Capitan desktop. The Menu Bar is at the top, with what looks kind of like a half eaten apple, which is next to the word Finder. Next to it were the words File, Edit, View, Go, Window, and Help. On the right, there are a bunch of different icons, including what looks like a magnifying glass, as well as the date and time, Tue 3:37 PM. At the bottom, there were a bunch of icons, with one that looked like a smiling blue-and-white face, one that looked like a rocket, a compass, a, a stamp, and some other weird-looking things. At the right, there was an icon that looked like a trash can.

Star admitted it all looked pretty, but then she asked, "Marco, what do you do with this?"

Marco replied, "Pretty much anything, really. For example, you can communicate with your friends and family via text and electronic mail, as well as video chat."

"Oh, so like a magic mirror. I have one I use to call my friends and family."

Marco thought that was pretty clever, having communication through a mirror. He might have to look at that mirror later. "Oh, but there's more. You can also listen to music, watch movies, play video games, write stories, and even browse the Internet!"

It was pretty clear that Marco was getting real excited about this, and Star wanted to join in on the fun too. "Yeah, the Internet! What's the Internet?"

Marco went into explainer mode. "The Internet is a bunch of different computers linked together all around the planet. You can use it to access all sorts of information and entertainment. Anything you can think of, right at your fingertips. To be fair, you can already do a lot with a computer without the internet, but with the internet, you can do even more."

Star's eyes widened and her pupils dilated. "You can do anything?"

"Yes, Star, anything."

"Anything?"

"Anything. Now hold on, let me show you some stuff. First, let me set up an account for you so that you have your own little space." Marco quickly switched to his account, and his unicorn background was plastered on the screen.

"Aw, Marco, that's so cute. Can I have that on my 'account'?"

"Of course, just hold on."

He used Spotlight to open up Users and Groups, and quickly entered his password again. Star saw as his fingers flew across the keyboard and how he quickly opened and closed windows. Marco then said, I'm going to need you to set a password.

Star asked, "Is it, like, a secret password?"

"Yes, it's secret. Don't let anyone know your password. Also make sure you can remember it."

"Hold on, I got this." Marco looked away as Star typed a password i . "Do I type it again?"

"Yes, Star, you type it again in the Verify Password box. Also remember to set a hint in case you forget."

Star continued typing slowly for a few minutes, making sure she got every letter right. Marco was getting bored, so he decided to pull out his laptop from his bag. "Don't mind me, Star, I'm just waiting."

Star didn't turn, as she was laser-focused on getting the password hint to be something she could remember the password by. After that, she then asked, "Marco, what do I do when I'm done?"

"Star, you click the 'Create User' button." Then you click the Apple menu in the top left corner, and log out."

"Log out, got it." By this point, Star knew to click on her user, having seen Marco done it, and to enter her password. "Okay, now what?"

"Now, we have some fun."

Marco and Star spent a few hours at the computer, playing games, watching videos, and prank-calling people on FaceTime. It was fun, and Star was really amazed at how the computer was able to do all this. It was like a magic wand.

Now it was getting late, and Marco said they should stop using the computer for today. Star pouted, and the hearts on her cheek broke. "Aw, but I wanted to use it more."

Marco simply said, "Star, with great power comes great responsibility. You need to learn not to spend too much time using a computer, because you want it to work for you. Kind of like your wand.

"Okay, I won't." Star calmed down a bit, and the two went downstairs for dinner. Marco was excitedly talking about how he was going to introduce Star to his geeky friends, and that together they could do lots of cool stuff together. Star couldn't wait to meet some more people, and if they were just as interesting as Marco, they'd have a good time.

She just couldn't wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this far. I know it's not much so far, and that the part where Star learns how to use a Mac feels a bit long-winded, but I wanted to approach that part from a first-timer's perspective. Basically no plot occurs, but I promise the next chapter is going to introduce the rest of the Echo Geeks.
> 
> To those who frown at my choice to use a Mac: I see Marco as a Mac user, since he likes organization and consistency. Plus, the laptop he has in the show looks an awful lot like a white plastic MacBook.


	2. Saturday_with_the_geeks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Star meets the rest of Marco's geek friends, and learns a bit about the basics of how computers work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another week, another chapter! I might come back to this chapter later to fix it up a bit since I didn't have anyone review it, but otherwise, I hope you enjoy it

It was time for Saturday, everyone’s favourite day of the week. Although Marco liked school and was a straight A student, it was always fun to kick back and relax with his friends, Alfonzo, Janna, and Ferguson. It was really lucky that they all lived in the same town, because that way they could always see each other in person. This week, however, Star was with him, and she was even more excited than Marco was, because she loved making new friends.

What made this all the more enjoyable was that Marco was taking Star there on his coveted bike, and she was very expressive of her excitement.

“This is fun! Mewni is totally missing out!” Star exclaimed this as they sped up while going downhill.

“It is something, isn’t it?” Marco was enjoying the ride just as much. There was just something about Star’s bubbly energy that made everything a bit more fun. “Now hold on, I’m going to slow down because we’re almost there.” Marco smoothly pulled the bike to a stop. He let Star get off, then parked his bike by a street sign.

Star looked at the house. It was a pretty normal house for the area, just like Marco’s. However, the colors were more muted compared to the vibrancy of the Diaz place. She turned to Marco and said, “Your friend’s place looks pretty boring.”

Marco simply replied, “Yeah, Janna’s parents aren’t the most interesting people in the world, to say the least.” The garage door then opened. The two were greeted by Alfonzo and Ferguson. Marco put on his best attempt at a regal expression and spoke. “Princess Star Butterfly, allow me to introduce you to some of the best friends that have ever lived. We have Alfonzo—” Alfonzo waved, “Ferguson—” Ferguson bowed, “and Ja—wait, where’s Janna?”

Ferguson just shrugged, and Alfonzo said, “All she told us was that she was gone for a bit, and to get comfortable until she arrives.” Marco guessed this probably had something to do with Star, but he didn’t say anything.

They all went into the garage. Star took a look around. On one side, there were various machines which she would later learn were soldering stations and 3D printers. On the other, there was a desk with 4 chairs, a lone computer, a bowl of snacks, a bunch of assorted cables, and an exposed circuit board. The walls had various tools hung on top of them. The group of five all went and sat on the couch, kept clean thanks to Marco’s neat freak nature. As soon as they sat down, Ferguson piped up.

“Marco, I can’t believe that a magical princess is your friend.”

Marco said, “She’s _our_ friend, Ferguson.” Star smiled at that.

“Give it up with the cheesy stuff, dude, this isn’t a rom-com! Anyways, we need to know more about Star.”

“How about we wait until Janna’s here?”

A voice behind them suddenly spoke. “No need to wait, I’m here now.” Janna walked into the garage. “I would’ve come in through the garage door but that would make way too much noise.”

Marco just shook his head. “Janna, you have such a flair for the dramatic.” He then explained to Star. “This is our friend Janna. Janna, this is—”

“Star Butterfly, magical princess from the kingdom of Mewni, which is on a planet that is also called Mewni, daughter of Queen Moon and King River Butterfly, sent here to learn how to properly use magic where it’s safe, yeah, spare me the details.” She then pointed her cold, smug face towards Star. “By the way, who’s Tom?”

Star looked dumbfounded. She asked, “How do you know about all this, Janna? Did Marco tell you? Even I haven’t told Marco about--” She shifted her stare to Marco. “Marco, I thought I could trust you!”

Marco wasn’t paying attention to her, as he was busy glaring at Janna. “Janna, I thought we were over this years ago. You said you wouldn’t spy on people like that.”

Janna responded, “Yeah, you said I couldn’t spy on you and your family. However, you said nothing about exchange students.”

While Star was processing all of this, her cheek marks turned into OS X beach ball loading spinners.

Janna then went on to add, “Oh, and if you’re wondering how I did it, I put a bunch of cameras in your room, because I know Marco would recognize cameras anywhere else in the house, and I also hid a camera on your shirt because I don’t know how your mirror phone works.”

Star quickly looked around on her shirt for the camera, visibly shocked. However, the rest had a knowing look on their faces. Marco spoke up. “Well played, Janna.” Meanwhile, Star was now mad at Janna for the blatant privacy violation. Marco realized he should explain to her. He put his arm on Star’s shoulders and said, “Janna’s like this, don’t worry about it. She’s just having fun, and she means no harm.”

“Unless you want it to be harmful.”

Thinking it over again, Star was actually impressed by the fact that Janna had managed to do so without being noticed. It definitely seemed like she knew her stuff.

Ferguson caught a glimpse of Star’s wand and asked, “Hey Star, can we take a look at your wand?” Star nodded, and everyone gathered close to look.

After a few moments of staring, Ferguson said, “So can you do anything with it?”

Star replied, “Anything.”

“You sure?”

“100%.”

“Can you get us all some ice cream? I want ice cream!”

Alfonzo unexpectedly spoke. “Can we use it to conquer the entire planet?” Everyone stared at Alfonzo.

Star said, “Uh, you could, but I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Janna spoke. “Can you use it to raise the dead?”

Star uneasily replied, “That’s a demon power, and despite these horns, I’m pretty sure I’m not a demon.”

Ferguson politely asked, “But can I still have my ice cream?”

Star approved. “Sure! In fact, I’ll give everyone ice cream!” Star raised her wand, but was stopped by Marco, who had a look of alarm in his eyes.

Marco demanded, “Before we continue, does anyone have anything they do _not_ want destroyed by a magical blast? Cause if there is, you don’t want it here.”

All of them excluding Star scrambled to move everything out of the garage. Alfonzo got the wires in one hand and the snacks in the other, Janna took her eyeball, Ferguson got the machinery, and Marco took the desk. Within a minute, everything was on the driveway except for the couch. Everyone was panting except for Star, who had done nothing. Marco spoke between gasps for air. “Okay, Star, you can, poof up, the ice cream.”

Star raised up her wand and said, “Rainbow Ice Cream Explosion!”

The resulting blast shook the garage, and the entire garage and everyone in it was covered in ice cream.

Ferguson was the first one to speak. “That was awesome!” He licked some ice cream off of his hands. “The ice cream is pretty good too.”

Marco did not feel the same. “Ugh, it’s in my hood.” He poked the couch. “Yeah, that stain is never going away.” He then took a look at poor Alfonzo, who was stuck to the couch.

“My guest bathroom’s free if anyone wants to shower,” Janna offered. No one replied. “I promise there are no cameras.”

Star picked up her wand and said, “I could just use a spell to clean up. Tidying up Ti—”

Marco shoved his hand in front of Star’s wand. “Nope, no magic.”

After half an hour of washing, everything was back in its place. The garage was spotless except for the couch, which would retain its rainbow colour for the foreseeable future. At least it didn’t smell like ice cream. Everyone was seated, and no one spoke for a bit. Star was the first one to break the silence.

“So, what do you all do? When you’re not busy with school or cleaning up magical messes, that is.”

Ferguson said, “We meet up every Saturday at one of our houses, and we play games, do homework, and make stuff. That’s what all the machines are for.”

Marco stood up. “Make stuff?’ **Make stuff?** Did you just refer to all the things we do together as ‘make stuff?”

Alfonzo chimed in. “He is right, though, we do make stuff.”

Marco continued. “We run a company called Echo Creek Systems. We created it a few years back so we could make some money off of electronics projects. Right now, the main thing we do is build security systems and sell them to the residents of Echo Creek, although I would love to do more than just that in the future. We all have a part in making them. Alfonzo and Ferguson handle hardware, while me and Janna do software.”

Star was a little confused. “Okay, that’s cool and all, but I don’t know what some of those words mean.

Janna turned a cold stare to Marco and said, “Marco, I thought you were better than this.”

Marco sighed in response, and began to explain to Star. “Okay, so there are two main things in computer systems, hardware and software. Hardware is the stuff in a computer that exists in the physical world, and software is the stuff you can’t touch, it’s a bunch of 1s and 0s that tell the hardware what to do. Now, since on Earth we don’t have magic, we have to use those 1s and 0s, which are like turning a light switch on and off—” Marco flicked the switch of the garage lights “—in very specific ways using these tiny things called transistors.” Marco pointed to a transistor on the circuit board on the desk. “These are like switches that either turn the electricity on or off. Then those transistors are put together in ways that make them useful. A typical computer—” Marco opened up the case of the desktop computer and pointed to a transistor “—has lots of these transistors. They’re really tiny. There’s a lot more to them, but that’s way too much for you today.” Star agreed with a nod, because even this tiny amount of information was making her head spin.

Marco continued on. “Alfonzo is our electronics guy. He’s an expert at looking at those circuits and figuring out what they actually do. Turns out his scrawny hands make for some pretty good precision at a small scale.”

Alfonzo was offended by the comment. “Hey, my hands are not scrawny! Although my work is very amazing, thank you.”

Ferguson countered him. “It’s not just your hands, it’s your whole body.”

Marco looked like he hadn’t just heard that conversation, and continued on. “Of course, all that circuitry needs protection, because one, it can cause harm to us, and two, we can cause harm to it. For example, water and circuits do _not_ mix. Don’t ever mix them. Also, you can get shocked by something with a high amount of electricity running through it, which is kind of like getting hit by a lightning bolt, but less bad. Still bad, though.”

Marco paused to take a breath, then went on. “Anyway, back to my point. You need something to put all the circuits and wires in. That’s where Ferguson comes in. He’s our hardware guy. He makes casing for circuits and also gets us things like wires and other bells and whistles.”

Star asked a question. “What do you mean, bells and whistles? I don’t see any.”

Marco groaned. “It’s an expression, Star. By that, I mean the different things, ugh, do you know what, I’ll explain it later. Now turn your attention to the left wall of the garage. You see those machines on the right? Those are 3D printers. Ferguson?”

Ferguson put on a confident expression. “With pleasure.” He walked over to the 3D printer, pressed a few buttons, then motioned for Star to come over. “Now look at this.”

Star stood in front of the 3D printer and watched it for twenty minutes as the machine put out each layer of the thing it was making. The end product was a box. She looked impressed. She said to Ferguson, “It was fun to watch, but it took _really_ long.”

“Yeah, the technology still has a ways to go,” replied Ferguson.

“Now for software, the fun part of the lesson,” Marco declared. This was met with a ‘Hey!’ from both Alfonzo and Ferguson, and a smirk from Janna. Marco continued in spite. “Hardware is cool and all, but without code to tell it to do something, it’s not really useful. This is where me and Janna come in. We work with the stuff that you can see on a computer screen. Janna is responsible for the functionality of the software, while I am responsible for making sure it looks good and easy to use. Again, I’m leaving out a lot of details, but that’s the gist of it.” Marco then walked over to the computer and put his hand on the keyboard. “You see, Star, the keyboard, mouse, and screen are hardware. You can touch them.” He then turned the computer on. It beeped to show that the POST (power-on self-test) was successful, then it continued to start up. “That beep you heard, as well as what you can see on the screen, that’s software.”

Star took a few seconds to process all that. After her brief silence, she said, “And I thought magic was complicated.” While parts of it went over her head, she was still wrapping her head around the concept that a bunch of little on-off switches could do so much. She then spoke to Marco. “Marco, I get what you’re basically trying to say, and you did a pretty good job at explaining it, but I think I’ll just figure the specifics out as I go, since I haven’t really used computers much yet.”

Marco was satisfied with that answer. He understood that Star would still be a bit confused, but she still caught on to things pretty quick. “Welp, that’s the end of that mini lesson! I’m going to shut up now.” He had gotten a bit worn out from explaining all that. The hard part was putting it together in a way that someone could understand, and even that was complicated. “So, since we don’t have any homework, and I do not want to do anything computer-related, who wants to go on a bike ride?”

Star asked, “Hey Marco, how do bikes work if there are no invisible goats?”

Marco facepalmed, and Ferguson just looked to the others and said, “Invisible goats? Am I missing some context?” Although the others didn’t have any idea about what Star was talking about either, they kept silent and looked at each other knowingly to mess with Ferguson.

“Can we please just ride? I am tired of explaining,” said Marco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Story notes: Sorry if this chapter felt a bit long-winded. I just felt I needed to explain some basic things through Marco, and it was probably a bore for those of you reading. I promise we get into actual adventuring soon.


	3. losAngelesPart1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco takes Star on a trip to the recycling center on LA's public transit. The pair encounter Ludo and his goons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I last updated, and that was because I completely changed my plan for Chapter 3. The chapter was also getting very long, and as a result, I have had to split it into two and end it on a cliffhanger. Sorry!

It was a typical Sunday morning. Yesterday had been a fun day, and after he and Star got home, he stayed up a few hours reading, because he liked to read a lot. However, he carefully tracked time to make sure he got enough sleep, and managed to stay an early riser as a result. He woke up at 6:30 on weekdays, and at 8:30 on weekends. Normally he would wake up himself and go through his morning routines, and then go downstairs for breakfast, which his parents usually made. He would then stay at home the entire day, taking the time to do nothing in particular. He liked his Sunday routine. However, today, he had decided that he would take the time to take Star out and show her around Los Angeles a bit. After he woke up, that is.  
Star had already woken up, because she slept early, and was naturally energetic. The first thing she did was to run straight into Marco’s room and get him out of bed. She shook Marco a bit, and managed to get him to awaken.  
“Good morning, Star,” said Marco, still groggy. “What time is it?”  
Star tapped a key at his desktop, and read the time. “It’s Sun Sep 26 7:03 AM. Did I get that right?”  
Marco realized that he still hadn’t told Star about Earth months. “Yeah, close enough. Wait, it’s 7:03? Star, I need my sleep! I only got 6 and a half hours! Humans need at least 8.” He took a breath. “But that’s besides the point.”  
“Sorry,” replied Star. “I didn’t know you slept at… Hey, does Earth also have 24 hours in a day?”  
“Yes.”  
“Uh, then around, uh, 12:30. Wait, why were you up so late?” “I was reading.” Marco straightened himself out, and rubbed his eyes a bit. “So, now that I’m up, what do you wanna do today?”  
Star thought about it. “I don’t know. What do you wanna do?”  
“On Sundays, I stay home, that’s pretty much it. Sometimes I go outside, but that’s pretty rare, since I usually stay outside all day on Saturdays. However, this Sunday, we’re going to a recycling centre.”  
Star said, “That sounds pretty boring, but if that’s what you wanna do, okay then.”  
Marco responded, “Oh, trust me, it’s far from boring. I’ll tell you more about it when we get there. But get ready first.”

The two of them brushed their teeth and washed their faces. They changed into some day clothes and then got downstairs for breakfast. Mrs. Diaz was flipping some pancakes. Marco set the table, laying down placemats and cutlery for everyone. He also brought out some maple syrup, and set it next to a plate with pancakes on the table. He served himself and Star.  
Marco’s mom looked over and said, “Marco, you don’t need to put your dad’s plate right now. He’s still in the shower. Anyway, good morning, you two! You look like you’re going somewhere.”  
Star said, “We are, but Marco isn’t telling me what we’re doing at the recycling centre.”  
“Oh. Every once in a while, Marco and his friends pick up some computers and stuff from a recycling centre in Pasadena.”  
Marco finished his bite and said, “When you’re in a city with a lot of rich people like LA, you can find a lot of good tech that would otherwise go to waste. An old classmate of mine works at one, and gets me the coolest stuff he finds.”  
“That sounds kind of interesting,” Star said. “Is that all we’re gonna do?”  
“Yup,” replied Marco, with a slight snicker that only his mom noticed. “That’s all we’re gonna do. Go all the way to the other side of the city, and all the way back.”  
“That isn’t too bad. It shouldn’t take too long.”  
“Did I mention that Los Angeles is a really big city and that it’ll take 3 hours to get there?”  
“Oh my, that’s really long. I didn’t know Earth cities were this big. Anyway, how are we gonna get there? Are we gonna go on your bike?”  
“Definitely not my bike. That would take the entire day. We will take a few trains, which are like buses, but on rails.”  
“How about we use my dimensional scissors instead? They create portals that will get us there and back in a jiffy. Don’t tell my parent’s I have them though. I’m not supposed to have them.”  
“How did you get them, then?” “Well…”  
We flash back to a few days earlier. As Star was preparing to go to Earth, she saw a pair of dimensional scissors in her things with a note attached to it. She read the note. “Don’t tell your parents. Have fun! -Hekapoo”  
Marco asked, “And who’s Hekapoo?”  
“Only the forger of all dimensional scissors in the universe,” said Star. “She works with my mom on the Magic High Commission.”  
“Well, those scissors sound pretty awesome, but sometimes it’s about the journey, not the destination.” Marco’s mom nodded in agreement.  
The two finished their meal. Star liked the pancakes. “Thanks, Mrs. Diaz! These round things were so good!”  
Marco’s mom was charmed by the compliment. “Anything for you, Star!”  
Marco put the plates away in the sink and said to Star, “Grab lots of bags, and we’ll get going.”

Marco and Star were at the crossing of Victory Blvd and De Soto Ave. Once they crossed the street, Marco checked the time. 8:35 AM. Marco walked over to the platform, and Star followed. Star asked Marco, “Why didn’t we go to the station back there?”  
“Canoga Park is more crowded,” replied Marco. “Besides, I like taking walks.” Marco then searched his pockets and pulled out two cards and a fistful of bills. He walked over to the fare machine, and Star watched as he paid the fares. He then gave Star one of the cards, looked deep into Star’s eyes, and said, “Don’t ever lose this.” Star shuddered from how cold Marco’s expression was.   
Marco laughed. “You should’ve seen your face! But seriously, it’s like $2 to replace, and without it you’ll end up stranded in Santa Monica or something with no way back.”  
Star spoke. “I don’t see any trains or rails. How are we gonna get there?”  
Marco pointed to the sign that said ‘Busway’. “The bus. That’s how. Not a school bus, though. This one is cooler.” Marco watched as the bus came in. “And we’re just in time. Come on.”   
Marco grabbed Star’s hand and went to the front doors of the bus. Marco tapped his card and gestured to Star to do the same. he two then went and took a seat. Marco sat next to the window, and looked outside.  
“I get motion sickness,” Marco explained. “Plus, the view is nice.”   
The bus started moving, and the two talked together the entire time. When the bus passed under the San Diego Freeway, Marco pointed to the bumper-to-bumper traffic on it.  
“And that’s why we took this bus.”  
Star looked at the cars she could see. “And I thought the royal mile was busy.”  
“Just wait until we get downtown. It’s much worse there.”  
After an hour, they finally arrived at North Hollywood Station, and they all got off the bus. Marco thanked the driver as he got off along with a bunch of other people, and Star did the same. The two of them walked over to the subway entrance and went down the escalator.  
“Moving stairs? This is fun!” Star exclaimed, as she went down the escalator.  
“You seriously haven’t went on an escalator before?” Marco asked.  
“No, but I love it. We totally need these in the castle.”  
Marco’s tone of voice changed to a whisper. “Star, we’re not in Echo Creek right now. Your dress and wand will pass for some sort of movie or TV show costume, but talking about Mewni or using your wand in public is going to get you unwanted attention. Just be careful, okay?”  
“Okay, Marco.”  
Once they got down, Marco tapped into the station, and so did Star. They walked over to the platform, where a lot of people were waiting. The subway train arrived, and just as before, grabbed Star’s hand and took a seat by a window.  
“You don’t want to get lost on the train. There are a lot of people. And also, try not to talk to me, I don’t really like subways because there’s nothing to look at outside.”  
“Okay, I’ll keep the chatter down.”  
“Enjoy the ride.”  
The doors closed and the train started. Marco gulped and tried to look out the window as much as he could. “Only 30 minutes, Marco. Only 30 minutes.”  
  
Buff Frog was roaming around Union Station, since he was told that was one of the city’s major transit hubs. He had received reports stating that Star was in this city, and had been looking around for the past 3 days. His searches at LAX on the first day and Union yesterday had proved unfruitful, but he wouldn’t give up. His job was to locate the wand for Ludo, and that is what he would do.  
Buff Frog held his dimensional scissors in one hand and his binoculars in the other, which were currently in front of his eyes. He asked, to no one but himself, “Star Butterfly, where could you be?”  
Right then, he saw a teenage-height girl with long blonde hair. He looked a bit more carefully, as he had found a bunch of long blonde-haired girls that weren’t Star, and that hadn’t gone too well, to say the least. The girl turned around, and she definitely had cheek marks. He then looked at her hand, and the wand was in it. He then opened a portal and went inside the throne room of Castle Avarius, where his master and fellow goons were seated.  
“Gentlemen, I have located Star Butterfly and the wand. We must act quick before we lose her.”  
Ludo spoke up from his throne. “You’re not going to tell me what to do! That’s my job, and I say we go after her!”  
Everyone else said, “Yes, boss,” in unison, and everyone headed through the portal to the station.

Marco and Star had just emerged in the concourse, walking amongst the crowd of people.  
Star was first to speak. “Marco, I feel like we’re being watched.”  
“That’s the security cameras, Star.” Marco pointed to a nearby camera.  
“No, it feels like someone is watching just me.”  
“Star, there are lots of people here that might see us, but they’re not looking at anyone in particular. There’s not much to be worried about.”  
Star was not paying attention to what Marco was saying. She caught a glint of a short kappa with a fuming expression. “Ludo,” she said under her breath.  
“Ludo? What’s Ludo?”  
“He’s a monster who’s been after my wand for a while. I think he’s here.”  
“Are you sure you see Ludo? There are a lot of people here, Star.”  
“Marco, what would you think if you saw a short green monster who looks angry all the time here on Earth?” “Probably a baby in a onesie.”  
“Marco, I recognize his face. And I find it highly unlikely that there would be a onesie that looks exactly like Ludo.”  
“Star, Ludo’s not––”  
Ludo shouted, “Star Butterfly, I’m coming for you!” He was looking straight at Star.  
At this point, Marco was convinced. He knew what to do. “Okay, so here’s the plan. We just have to make it to that escalator to catch the Gold Line. We can lose them.”  
“That’s a good plan––“ Marco grabbed Star’s arm.  
“Run.”  
Ludo saw them run away. “What are you fools waiting for? After them!”  
Star and Marco jostled through the crowd, with the monsters close behind. They got to the gates. Marco rapidly tapped his card on the fare gate. “Hurry up, stupid gate!”   
The gate opened in a second, but that second felt like an hour to Marco. Once the gate opened, they ran down the stairs. Ludo’s goons all jumped over the gate, except for Ludo, who crawled under it. No one around dared to say a word, but everyone was laughing inside at Ludo.  
“So humiliating,” Ludo complained.  
Once they reached the bottom, Marco quickly pulled Star onto a train, and took a seat.   
“Phew, we should be safe now,” Marco said.  
Star was looking behind him. “Uh, Marco? Behind you?” Marco looked behind him, and saw all the monsters ready to attack.  
“Star Butterfly, I have finally found you! Now give me the wand,” Ludo demanded.  
Marco put on a nonchalant expression. “No, she won’t, and you can’t fight for it now. You’re trapped.”  
“Trapped? But how?” All the monsters as well as Star were confused.  
“By societal convention! Everyone knows not to get physical in a train, and if you do, I doubt the driver will take it well. So take a seat. In fact, you can take the one right in front of us, and you can hurl insults at us during our ride.”  
“Darn it,” said Ludo. “Take your seats, gentlemen. Once we’re off this train, we will fight Princess Butterfly and his smart-aleck friend for the wand.”  
Marco interrupted. “You’re not allowed to explicitly threaten people either. And remember, no swearing.”  
Ludo was infuriated. He was about to explode. Star was also infuriated, since she had got her fighting spirit worked up, and was about to lash out at Ludo.  
“No temper tantrums either. Hold on.” Marco reached in his bag and brought out a few stress balls. “Here you go. Whenever you feel stressed, squeeze it. It works wonders.”  
Ludo snatched one of them and squeezed it hard. Star snatched the other. The train got moving.  
Ludo said to the stress ball, “You are very unpleasant, Star Butterfly.” He gave it a hard squeeze.  
Star looked at her stress ball. “Oh, so that’s how you wanna play it. You are so idiotic, Ludo.” She squeezed her stress ball hard.  
Ludo grumbled a bit, but a bit less harder than before. He continued the exchange with Star. Meanwhile, the monsters watched the two of them go at it, and Marco just pulled out his phone and checked how long it would take to get to the next stop. He then proceeded to check today’s news, and looked out the window every two minutes or so to make sure he didn’t get sick. He liked looking at the view, and would enjoy it while he could, until they got to their destination.

That's where the real fun begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This was a bit harder to write and plan out. Hopefully I can get the second part out soon.


End file.
